As federal funds for the climate-tech sector get pulled back under President Trump’s administration, Georgina Campbell Flatter believes organizations such as Greentown Labs can step up to fill the gap.
That’s one of the big reasons Flatter has agreed to join Greentown as its CEO, and move back to Massachusetts from her native United Kingdom. The Greentown board of directors on Monday announced that Flatter will be the next chief executive of the nation’s largest clean-tech incubator. She is excited about the impact she could have at Greentown in encouraging startups that are working to curb global warming and other environmental threats, particularly amid an anticipated rise in global energy demand.
“This is a pretty critical time for energy and climate, and we all need to lean in,” Flatter said. “The federal funding challenges, … we know they’re impacting the startups, which makes Greentown even more important. … If we don’t step up, then there will be slowed momentum, and we can’t have that happen.”
Flatter already has many ties to the Boston area, having worked in various roles at MIT for a decade, but relocated from Massachusetts with her family back to the UK about five years ago. She currently leads TomorrowNow, a global nonprofit offshoot of Boston-based Tomorrow.io, which specializes in weather prediction technology; TomorrowNow works to get that tech in the hands of farmers in impoverished nations, primarily in Africa, with help from major philanthropic partners such as the Gates Foundation.
Flatter will arrive at Greentown, which runs startup incubators in Somerville and Houston, after two years of tumult. She will be the fifth chief executive or interim CEO to take over after longtime CEO Emily Reichert left in 2022. (Reichert now leads the quasi-public Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.)
February 11, 2025